Adjustable height tees seem to be catching on around here. You may remember back in late March THP reviewed The Optimal Tee. Now a familiar name has entered the ring in the adjustable height tee market, Excel Golf Products, Inc. maker of Zero Friction tees has recently introduced Lock N Drive. Lock N Drive is the adjustable height tee with the popular three prong Zero Friction trademark that promises more distance and an increase in accuracy. How do these tees stack up next to the old traditional standby of the wood colored wooden tee? Read on to find out:
Excel Golf Tee was established in 2001; it wasn’t until 2005 however that the Zero Friction line was introduced. Immediate success was enjoyed by claiming victory the very first week the golf tee was on tour. Since then Zero Friction has been the tee of choice for over 30 PGA Tour victories and over 210 top-10 finishes to date. The Lock N Drive tee has six total settings for a wide range of tee heights making these tees usable throughout all clubs, wedges on up to the driver.
Assembly and use:
• Place one stopper at the base of the tee with flat surface facing up
• Slide stopper up to desired height (one of six)-twist stopper right to lock in place
• Place tee in ground and swing away!
For our testing we were sent the 2 ¾ inch variety of Lock N Drive. (3 ¼ inch also available) The basic premise is that you use the stopper provided to set your desired height before you round and each time you tee it up you insert the tee until the stopper is flush with the ground. Seems like such a simple concept really, we are all familiar with the several different swing thoughts that go through a golfer’s mind before teeing off, the Zero Friction Lock N Drive should help eliminate at least one minor element of a potential bad shot. In the event you find yourself on the green without a coin on you the stopper can also be used as a handy ball marker.
The Lock N Drive certainly provided what it claims to for me; however the problem I had in testing has become a rather familiar issue for me and the dreaded plastic tee. My normal process of teeing a golf ball isn’t likely much different than the majority of golfers, I cup the ball in my hand with the tee sticking out underneath. The ball becomes my driving force when inserting the tee into the ground on the tee box. Straight forward enough, right? My issue with the Lock N Drive and its plastic construction was that the tee was often too weak to penetrate the ground on a good share of the tee boxes at my club and driving range. The work around isn’t real difficult, I just had to utilize the stopper to push my tee in the ground and tee by ball up afterward. This isn’t a back breaker by any means, just a little annoyance as far as I was concerned.
Once teed up the Lock N Drive delivered on the promise of being a solid golf tee, but honestly I can’t say that I really noticed any increase in distance and/or accuracy by using the Zero Friction tee. You can’t really argue with the wins on the PGA Tour though, 30 plus wins and some 210 top-10 finishes obviously speak for themselves. What the Lock N Drive tee did to however was offer the exact same tee ball location shot after shot and in a game where fraction of centimeters at impact can result in a great miss some 275 yards away from the tee box, I’ll take the consistency of the Lock N Drive tee thank you very much. The tees will be coming to retail stores everywhere shortly. For more information on Zero Friction, check out their website at www.zerofrictiontees.com.
Here’s to keeping it in the short grass
Jason K
I am looking forward to these coming out. Good review.
I may try these out when they come out too. The only thing I didn’t like was the strength of the tee to get into hard ground. That’s an issue here in the summer. If they are that convenient though, my opinion on that could change by the time the ground is hard and it is an issue.
Very informative. I’ll look for these in retail stores and try them out. Consistant tee-ing is a problem for me and this will help out.
Good idea.
I’ve been marking my tees at the proper height for some time now, I like the idea of the stopper.
I tried these tees for the first time and found my confidence was increased greatly and I started hitting longer and straighter drives. I had no problem pushing them in the ground even in hard Wisconsin clay. I bought them at golf galaxy and founf them to be extremely durable…I played an entire round with one tee…and I adjusted it it multiple tees and used the ball marker on the green many times too…great product…TRY THIS ONE!
I tried these for the first time today and have to say I was quite impressed. It did not take long to change the length of the tees and having that consistent height was great. I did have some difficulty pushing them into the ground a few times because these are not as rigid as the “normal” ZF tees I have been using. Overall I believe these are a great innovation and am strongly considering putting these in my bag.
are the tees illegal in the pga tour
Try the Tee By The Numbers. It’s the height adjustable locking tee to use. It conforms to USGA and R&A. It’s a lot quicker to use and penetrates the ground easily in those tough tee boxes. They’ve been on the market since 2007. All you do is Click It & Stick It.
I just purchased the lock n drive ZF tees I really like these tees, straight & long I hit some drives 240 yards but in playing 9 holes I broke two tees they seem to be a little on the weak side.